I've played a few Pathfinder games, I've even considered running one myself, and I've come across a common problem for me when I play my character (or in any system really).
I start out with a decent build, exactly what I want within the limitations of the character options, and fairly happy with what I have to start out with, and plenty of room to grow going ahead.
But the 'going ahead' part catches me up. During gameplay, my character's goals and motives can shift and change, and often what I had planned in advance seems less useful in the light of what's going on in the campaign.
More problematically, what I usually find once my growth starts is that it is either woefully underpowered, strongly dis-recommended by my fellow players, or both. I've played a Monk, a Gunslinger, and am currently playing a Magus, but I constantly have the probelm that, when it comes time to start growing out my character, I find them falling further and further behind other characters in terms of sheer strength, power, and usefulness.
What can I do to help plan out my character better, so that they'll continue to be a productive member of the team? Is it better to focus on one talent and stick to it? Or is it better to diversify?
Best Answer
The primary goal for planning out a 3.x character is to ensure that you receive level-appropriate powers at each level. This is complicated by the fact that it’s extremely unclear what is appropriate at each level; the different classes get wildly different levels of power at various levels (especially high levels).
Worse, the system uses stringent requirements and option “chains” that rely on one another constantly. A character that evolves naturally is extremely unlikely to meet the requirements of the feats, powers, and so on that are now appropriate to the new direction he’s moving in.
If you change directions, and are taking “starter” feats in this new direction (feats a lower-level character taken), you are, by definition, not getting level-appropriate feats.
Thus, yes, it is generally best to think of your mechanical options in terms of what you hope to have at the highest level you expect to hit. If you don’t, when you get past the level you have planned out to, you risk simply not having level-appropriate options to take.
What it takes to plan a character
Spellcasters simplify planning
Spellcasters, particularly the ones that prepare different spells every day, are massively better off in this regard. Spells are just-about-guaranteed to be level-appropriate (since they are leveled), do not rely on knowing certain prior spells (allowing you to change direction easily), and, if you prepare spells, you can totally switch everything you’re doing each day.
Plus, more importantly, spells are by far the most powerful force available to Pathfinder characters. When you play a fullcaster (gets up to 9th-level spells), you following the highest available standard for what “level-appropriate” might mean. A 6th-level spell can be, and very often is, much better than anything an 11th-level gunslinger or monk gets. Mundane and martial characters in Pathfinder are often limited by Paizo’s sense of verisimilitude; spellcasters get a free pass on that, and are only limited by spells per day (which are plentiful by mid levels).
All that power frees you up a lot on your other choices. You can pick weak feats, and it won’t matter very much because your spells are so good. You can even pick weak spells, and if you’re a prepared spellcaster it still won’t matter that much, because you can always just prepare different spells tomorrow.
Mundane and martial characters are much more complicated to plan out
Counter-intuitively, the classes that seem “simplest” at first glance are actually the most complicated. They easily get “locked in” to certain paths, with extremely harsh punishments for trying to find a new path, and there are abundant “traps” you can get locked into that prevent you from getting level-appropriate abilities.
Thus, you have to carefully figure out exactly what you’re getting each level, figure out how that compares to the spells available at that level, and try to make sure you don’t fall too far behind. Inevitably, you will fall behind spellcaster’s potential, but with care and the right group, you may be able to keep up with the actual spellcasters that you play with. You will have to work harder than they do to accomplish that, however.
So you have to look at all the options available to you, pare away the ones that just don’t keep up (and a lot don’t), and then you have to make sure you are hitting all of the prerequisites you need to in order to get those things on time. In many cases, you will have to commit yourself quite strongly in order to accomplish this; you will not be able to have your character naturally evolve in a new direction. In some cases, you will have to deny yourself options you like, because they require too much, pull you too far away from getting the requirements you need in the future, and so on. For example, only a couple of monk archetypes progress well into mid-to-high levels; the overwhelming majority start falling behind very early. Those archetypes are therefore not available to you if you want to keep up later in the game, because they lock you in and deny you the options you need later.
Your DM can help massively
By allowing extensive retraining, merging and modifying archetypes to mix ‘n’ match to get the features you want, and relaxing or eliminating requirements liberally, a DM can dramatically improve your life. It can allow greater ability to change direction, improve the power-level of weaker classes, and ensuring that the stuff you’re getting is actually good rather than just the random tax you have to pay to keep your options open later.
This is probably still insufficient to keep up with spellcasters, if they’re well-played, but it will help. If your group is not optimizing their spellcasters very hard, you can optimize your weaker class and smooth out the imbalance. It’s not easy, even with DM help, but it can be done to an extent.
But your life will simply be easier as a fullcaster.
Specialization, versatility, and planning
The discussion of whether you should plan on a specialty or plan on doing a bit of everything is, again, sharply delineated along the mundane/magical divide.
Mundanes: almost-enforced specialization
For a mundane character, getting a new trick means starting from the 1st-level feats. Thus, generalizing for a mundane character means starting over. As I hope I’ve established, this is a very bad thing. When you’re level 9, those 1st-level feats are long since obsolete; enemies you face have to be prepared for the 9th-level version of your new trick, which means your 1st-level version isn’t going to impress.
Worse, the thing you had been doing for the first 8 levels is now potentially missing a bonus you could have, and your enemies could be prepared for. Missing one isn’t a big deal; the real problem is if you get to 16th level, and have 8th-level versions of both tricks, neither of which actually works against 16th-level enemies who are prepared for the 16th-level versions of those tricks.
This is what happens when you attempt to generalize as a martial or mundane character, and it’s a huge problem. It all but forces you to specialize, and it means you will inevitably run into situations, potentially many situations, where your trick doesn’t work.
(Note: for simplicity’s sake, I’m describing this as a single trick. In reality, you can probably support a few tricks. But I do mean “a few” – we are talking 1-3, maybe 4 tricks here. And they are likely to be quite narrow tricks with significant scenarios where none of them work.)
Casters: freedom to generalize
On the spellcasting side, you can at 9th level pick up a new trick, that is a spell completely different from any other you’ve ever used before, and it will still be appropriate to a 9th-level character. And spells automatically scale with caster level, which means the spells you already know are still just as good as they would have been. Each spell is independent, which frees you up a lot to generalize. Spellcasting means you can simultaneously support many tricks, and that means you are far less likely to run into a situation where none of your tricks work.
How to plan
As a mundane character, you’re almost definitely going to need to pick a specialty, a few tricks, hopefully related, to support. Otherwise you are not likely to be able to maintain level-appropriate features (barring extremely careful build planning). Worse, you can’t just take your pick; you have to choose your tricks carefully. You need to find out how easily enemies can negate it, and make sure your tricks are as broadly effective as possible, how you are going to handle the limits it does have.
As a spellcaster, you don’t need to plan on a specialty, but you should still be a bit careful. You don’t want all your spells to do the same thing; doing that gives up a huge advantage in that you can have your spells do very different things. That said, you still probably want a specialty. This is what you spend your feats and other permanent options on, this is a major part of your character’s identity, this is a bigger chunk of your spells than others. It will make you have a specialty that you can excel in, that, when it works, can be devastating. But don’t sacrifice your versatility. Even if you’re a “blaster,” you don’t need a direct-damage spell at every level: you need one great one, and one that will work when that one doesn’t, and maybe at higher levels you should get another as the others become obsolete. The other spells are utility, answers when direct-damage isn’t a good one, and whatnot. You don’t need to sacrifice versatility to be effective, so you shouldn’t.